


A Hell of a...

by Adeline_Hatter



Series: Red Cracks in The Sky [3]
Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: 21 Questions, Accidental meeting, F/M, Fake Out, Meeting Again, fancy party, references to sexual content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 06:31:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Hatter/pseuds/Adeline_Hatter
Summary: She hadn't expected to see him at this party, but they both found a use for the other... Whilst answering some questions along the way.





	A Hell of a...

**Author's Note:**

> I started this months ago and finished it five minutes ago enjoy.

She knows he remembers her the moment his eyes land on her across the room. 

She feels the recognition seep into her skin and make her bones shake with the sound of the room fading out, only his footsteps as he moves towards her making its way through the sudden silence.

For a moment she wonders if she’s dreaming, he cleans up nicely and Gray in a suit is still… 

“If it isn’t Ol’ Red Sneak-a-roo.” 

_ Forgotten. _

  


“Graham.” She greets, the hope in her heart, the warmth leaking out slowly, “What are you doing here?”  
  
Graham shrugs, his hair is smoothed back fully from his face, nothing standing up, his tie is in a bow and he plucks a glass of champagne off a passing tray, “I could ask you the same thing but… I did a job for the host awhile ago so they thought I’d like a fancy party invite.” 

“I’m here because I’m doing a job for my Father.” Not a complete lie, Carmen was here for a job… Provided by her Father _ figure _on the smart little condensed piece of tech that held all of VILE’s secrets and for a moment she isn’t sure if Graham is telling the complete truth either, “Business connections, of course I’m not sure he realised what exact kind of party it was either.” 

He leans in after a moment of looking puzzled and she gets a waft of his cologne, sea salt, coffee, something else that she couldn’t quite place, “I’m actually really bored.” 

“Wanna get out of here?” Carmen doesn’t even really know why she asks, it just rolls off her tongue without her say so before her lips smile with the same lack of volition as that question. 

Graham, smiles back almost immediately as he leans over to whisper in her ear “More than anything.” 

* * *

  


They end up wandering through the big house the party was taking place at, one of Countess Cleo’s favourite consorts decided to throw a party at they’re sydney residence and wasn’t one to care about who went where. 

Couples generally seemed to pair off relatively quickly, all disappearing into vacant rooms and then not being seen again for well over a few hours. 

Somehow, she’s ended up casing the place and answering twenty-one questions at the same time. 

“Where are you from?” This is question number eight after a series of mundane ones, Graham walks slowly, averting his eyes when they hear a particular noise from one room and staring straight ahead, his ears turn a little pink each time and she almost finds it adorable… 

Carmen pauses in front of a painting that has got to be a one of a kind Van Goph, “Argentina, though I grew up in the Canary Islands.”   


He whistles, “That’s quite a move, you remember it?”

“Not really, mostly remember afterwards.” She’s being as honest as she can, “Do you have any family?” Is her question. 

Graham sticks his hands in his pockets, “I have an older brother, but I don’t see him often, he’s a business man so he travels a lot… Honestly he’s a bit of a Date.” 

She raises an eyebrow. 

“Arse.” He translates and she nods slowly, “How about you? You mentioned your Father any siblings?”

Carmen laughs, “You don’t sound fond, of your brother, but yes, I have a friend who’s like a little brother to me, though he’s way smarter.” 

“Ah, so your a found family type then?” He says it softly, “Me too and no I’m not fond of my brother at all.” 

They start walking again, she sweeps her eyes down the hallway, “That’s nine questions down by the way.” 

“I have twelve left then?”

“Eleven.” She smirks. 

He frowns, “Okay, that definitely doesn’t count.” Graham spins around so he’s looking at her whilst he’s walking backwards, “I have to think about this carefully it seems, getting the elusive Carmen to tell me all her secrets....” 

“Not before you tell me yours.” Carmen replies, picking up her pace a bit as they reach where she was leading them all along, the study’s door looms before them, “Why did you become a technician?”

He shrugs, “I’m smart and I have thin fingers, they have many talents.” He watches her traces the handle on the door as he stops, “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m an acquirer of complicated acquisitions.” She answers carefully and watches his eyebrows furrow just as she turns the knob, finding it unlocked, “Can I ask you a favour?”

“You can ask me anything.” And this is when she knows he isn’t lying. 

For the span of the two seconds she lets herself feel guilty, she takes him by the collar, carefully seeking out the security cameras as she pulls him into the room after her, “Pretend to be smitten with me for the next ten minutes.” 

“Nothing to pretend…” He whispers, she realises then that she’s just pulled her once best friend now very attractive young man into a dark secluded room all alone and momentarily questions her sanity, “Carmen…” He almost breathes, leaning in closer to her, his hands sliding like puzzle pieces into her waist. 

She slowly, carefully removes herself from his arms, almost too comfortable and daunting at the same time as she walks around the desk in the center of the room. 

“You’re a thief.” He returns, looking not in the least bit put out by her removal of his arms, there’s something in his face, his eyebrows were furrowed again and there’s recognition in his eyes, deeper, like he’s truly trying, “....I knew this already didn’t I?”

Carmen is professional, she’s professional, completely and utterly professional even as she says “Yes.” 

“I knew you before didn’t I?”

Another yes, followed by locating what she’s looking for, sliding the documents out of the desk draw just as she hears footsteps echoing down the hall. 

“Carmen… Did you use to go by-” Then he stops, “I got this name in my head when I was on the bus, a little after we met, whenever I thought of it you popped into my head…” 

Now this is where she pauses, the documents in her hands, “Gray-” 

“There’s that nickname again.” He takes a step forward and she knows what the last scent is in his cologne, wood smoke, something going up in flames, “.....But, you can tell me later, because for all good rhyme and reason all I can think about right now is the fact that there are people running down that hallway towards us and we need to _ hide.” _

The footsteps were getting closer and he seems to think quicker than she does as he walks around the back of the desk, hoists her up on it and- “_ Sorry about this.” _

The documents get slid into his jacket as the door opens to see his lips on hers, pressing, pushing backwards, his hand around the back of her neck cradling it, pulling her closer at the same time. 

His lips are softer than she’d thought they’d be, not rough or coarse, but slow, melding with her own as he slowed the kiss down, there seems to be so much loyalty in the kiss, he slowed down some more but she didn’t want him to, but just as she was about to press back properly he pulls away. 

“Can we help you gentlemen?” He asks, looking behind her but she’s looking at him, it takes a single second to come to her senses again, before she’s sliding her arms around his chest, “We’re a little busy in here.” For a moment she could have sworn that Gray was back, it was everywhere, cocky, pride leaking into the room as he smoothed his hand down her neck onto her back like a caress. 

“This room is off limits.” One of the guards said, her face was completely hidden she realised, he was willing to take the blame for breaking in here.

Graham shrugs, “It was unlocked, I do apologise, my company and I figured it was free game.” 

She hears some murmurs, before “Sorry to bother you.” One person says, “We just need you to vacate the room is all…” 

“We’ll get out of here in a moment, trust us.” She can hear the lie and the smile in his voice, there’s reluctance, so she watches Graham straighten, “I’m familiar with the owner of this building, now, you have five seconds to leave before I call her and tell her you are distracting a _ very powerful _friend of hers.” 

He’s falling into it so naturally, the intimidation tactic seems to working for the longest second until she hears another, smaller apology as the door starts to shut in time with Graham leaning in again. 

Her heart beats fast when she realises that his pupils are blown wide, his pulse is up as well and she can feel it from where she sits, there is this moment, pure and she wonders if she could risk it. 

“How was that Red?” His whisper is intoxicating and all she can smell is sea salt, wood smoke and what she now realises has to be roses, “Think I fooled them?”

Carmen pulls backwards, letting him go, reluctance in her every move, ignoring the way his eyes seem to be pinned on her every movement, ignoring the fact that her lips are quickly drying, ignores how he licks his own covered with just the right amount of her lipstick. 

“Yes, you definitely did… But we need to get out of here before they realise you lied.” He lifts her down from the desk as she finishes her sentence and his arms around her is a sensation she sorely misses the moment he lets go, “Um, we’ll have to hurry.” 

She starts towards the door, “Let’s go.” He says, all serious again and for a moment she thinks that Gray, _ her _Gray is back. 

What’s worse is that she almost believes it too. 

Her fingers reach up to drift over her lips quietly, realising something quickly that she shoved to the back of her head just as fast, “Know how to look like you’ve just been cock-blocked?” She asks in a half tease, half… Something she wasn’t quite ready to admit to herself. 

“Well, I’ve seen a lot of teen dramas so…” Then his arm is around her waist again as he opens the door, finding that the guards at further down the hallway, far away enough so to give them privacy, but not enough that they could be scolded for not being on duty. 

She lets loose a classic giggle, “Way to ruin the mood.” She mutters to them as she passes, realising that she’d been silent up to that point. 

Graham’s arm tightens around her waist as they walk, then it pulls her in so close her side is pressed to him and it isn’t unpleasant, there’s half an apology in his eyes as he does so. 

“We can finish this back at my place.” He says and she kind of wishes it wasn’t a line to further cement their cover, but it is as they reach the stairs again. 

He doesn’t move his arm as they walk back through the crowd, she finds she almost doesn’t want him to. 

* * *

  


There’s a soft, cold breeze that curls over her shoulders and makes her shiver and she finds his jacket wrapped around her within moments. 

“Do you think you could explain to me what exactly is going on?” He asks, it’s so honest, so earnest and it reminds her of the late night pep talks he’d given her during their time at V.I.L.E, “Because I think I know but I’m missing some puzzle pieces.” 

She tugs his jacket tighter around her, “What’s the first thing you remember?”

“Being pulled over the back of a seat, by you.” 

Carmen laughs, despite herself, despite the situation, “You were rude.” 

“I gathered that.” His smile is teasing as he looks around, then slides his arm around her shoulders and they start to walk down the street, “So, what am I missing?”

She licks her lips, noting that her lipstick still exists on his, “A whole lot, but we’ll have to get somewhere else first.” 

“Mine?” She shakes her head, “Yours then.” 

There’s more teasing in his smile, “It’s a sensitive subject, you won’t even know if I’m telling the truth.” She says it because it is the right thing to say, not because she wants to. 

“I trust you.” It’s earnest and her heart aches as he says it, “Besides, I must be your idea of a good kisser if you are willing to bare all for me.”

She laughs again, it feels natural for a response and his smile grows, eyes sparkling. 

“I do have to admit..” Carmen begins, sparing him a glance, “It was a hell of a first kiss.” 

She watches him as he processes it. 

“A hell of a… Carmen that was you-”

She laughs again and takes his hand to pull him down the street, playing the part of a besotted date. 

  
His smile has faded but his eyes are wide with what she is _ sure _is affection.


End file.
